It was 2016. And few best friends forced me to go on a morning jog for a few days. Soon, I felt running wasn't my thing. Fast forward to 2019, I started going to the ocean. I realized that I can't swim either. But it didn't bother me. I never gave myself an opportunity to fix it. It actually didn't occur to me as a problem then. Coz who really cares about running and swimming, right? It didn't occur to me that this was something that I must fix. The urgency or the importance of this was never understood.
Not until corona hit and I moved back home, Kanyakumari. Whenever I was going for a morning walk on the beach or an evening walk around the Sootu pothai hill, the want to run started to pile up. On one of the walks around the hill, I was in aaww looking at a few boys run. I asked the hill, when will you make me run? I really want to run. I am not fit for it. My knees are aching after I try to run. I am not able to breathe after I run a short distance, please help me run. I asked with my hands folded🙏. I remember telling my mom in the kitchen about my inability to run. But then my dreams came true.
After hiking Maruthuva malai a dozen times and also nomading across India, my diet and fitness improved. In 2021, for the first time, I realized I could run. This picture and video after my first long run on the river island of Majuli.
Every morning I used to run from my stay to this distant bamboo bridge on the Lohit river. I used to gasp for breath by the time I reached the bridge. The views, the clean air, empty white sand roads, the green all around, the colors of sunrise directly reflecting on the river, and my breath coming deep from my diaphragm.
Today, I can run. I write this after my morning jog around Agara Lake in HSR Bangalore. A 9km run at a pace of 8 mins/km. My body doesn’t feel as bad when I run. There is still a lot of room for improvement. The dream of running 20km without a stop exists. I pray to Sootu Pothai 🙏
Thanks, universe for teaching me to run 🧡🙏